Authors: Ryan Michael Painter
Local Review: The Rose Phantom – Soulless Experiment
The Rose Phantom = Voltaire + Alan Wilder + Prog rock … read more
Local Review: Revideolized – The Moon Driven Dark
Revideolized The Moon Driven Dark Self-Released Street: Feb. 2007 Revideolized = Recoil Hydrology + Progressive Rock Electronic music in its purest form is by nature experimental. It isn’t just about creating a great melody, it’s about manipulating sounds that by right have no place in a musical structure and turning that chaos into a memorable
Local Review: Phono – The Changeover
Phono The Changeover 10 Degree Productions Street: 2006 Phono = NIN + VNV Nation Joe Ashton terrorizes electronic music with a focus bent on rhythm. Were you to spread the parts out, name checking the various influences that are prevalent on The Changeover you’d find just about every industrial/EBM clich, minus Skinny Puppy’s vocoder. Violence,
Local Review: Cavedoll – The Harbor
Cavedoll The Harbor Psuedorecordings Street: 01.07 Cavedoll = Interpol + Stellastarr* + Franz Ferdinand + Devo Cavedoll sound like post-punk part two, not just a piece of this or that band but literally all of the bands were they smashed into three bodies and one album. While this makes for an uneven ride, it does
Review: Civic Center – The Ground Below
Civic Center = Suicide + Bauhaus B-sides and Dubs … read more
Review: Gene Loves Jezebel – Promise, Immigrant, Discover
There will be those who suggest that the Jezebels were nothing more than a one-hit wonder, placing them among the brilliant and overlooked Psychedelic Furs, etc. … read more
Review: Gang of Four – Happy Now
Gang of Four = Primal Scream + Filter + Bono’s falsetto … read more
Review: Fiver – Let It All Fall Down
FIVER LET IT ALL FALL DOWN Devil in the Woods Fiver encompasses dream pop that at times reminds of Postal Service because of the falsetto over-electronic elements, but more often than not, the guitars push away the comparisons. This is more akin to the shimmery pop that dominated the U.K. and American College charts in
Review: Ffa Coffi Pawb – Am Byth
Ffa Coffi Pawb Am Byth Empyrean Before Gruff Rhys was mesmerizing the world with Super Furry Animals, he and a cast of characters who would go on to play in Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Mogwai and Cornelius were kicking around Wales as Ffa Coffi Pawb. Am Byth is a compilation pulled from their three albums and
Review: Erasure – Nightbird
Erasure Nightbird Mute On Erasure’s last release, Other People’s Songs, Vince Clark and Andy Bell sounded tired. Their bag of tricks had been spent, reducing them to an album of poorly constructed cover songs, and even though it pushed the duo back onto the radar in America, it was quite easily their worst effort
Review: Dynasty – Black Box
Dynasty, however, are rather enjoyable in that they take all the hand claps and mix it with a certain sleazy sound that has the same texture as a Soft Cell album. … read more
Review: Drop the Fear – Self-Titled
Drop the Fear Self-Titled Drop the Fear The comparisons to the Cocteau Twins are going to be rampant even though they aren’t exactly accurate. Neither the guitars nor the vocals are anywhere as layered or complex, but still there is something there that does recall the cascades and swirling tide that defined 4AD in the
